Conventionally, a wiring harness disposed in a vehicle has been often covered by a corrugated tube formed of synthetic resin to protect the wiring harness from any damage due to hindrance of, for example, any projection present in the location in which the wiring harness is disposed.
A conventional corrugated tube which has been proposed is shown in FIG. 11. Referring to FIG. 11, the corrugated tube 1 includes a body 2 in which a plurality of peaks 2a and a plurality of valleys 2b are continuously alternated in a longitudinal direction Y1 of the body 2, and a slit 3 formed in the body 2 in the longitudinal direction Y1. The corrugated tube 1 is configured to receive a wiring harness (not shown) through the slit 3 and cover the whole wiring harness.
Referring to FIG. 11B, after the corrugated tube 1 receives the wiring harness through the slit 3, the both end portions of the body 2 between which the slit 3 of the body 2 is interposed are overlapped to close the slit 3. In this state, the both end portions of the body 2 can overlap together by fitting engagements between the peak 2a disposed in one end portion of the body 2 and the corresponding mating or counterpart peak 2a disposed in the other end portion of the body 2, and between the valley 2b disposed in one end portion of the body 2 and the corresponding mating or counterpart peak 2b disposed in the other end portion of the body 2.
However, in the case of the afore-mentioned conventional corrugated tube 1, the engagement of the both end portions between which the slit 3 is interposed is not easy. This is because the peak 2a disposed in the one end portion and the corresponding mating peak 2a disposed in the other end portion and the valley 2b disposed in the one end portion and the corresponding mating valley 2b disposed in the other end portion may be misaligned during the engagement. For example, the peak 2a disposed in the one end portion may be brought into a fitting engagement with other peak 2a adjacent to the corresponding mating peak 2a disposed in the other end portion.
Due to the afore-mentioned misaligned engagement, the slit 3 disposed inside the corrugated tube 1 has a tendency to outwardly protrude, thereby causing greater likelihood of compromising the insulator of the wiring harness received inside the corrugated tube 1. This would cause quality degradation of a final product. For the reasons, after the completion of the engagement, the corrugated tube 1 is visually inspected. If there is a misaligned engagement, the operation of the engagement would be performed once again for correction. There is no doubt the inspection and re-engagement are cost- and time-consuming jobs.